Jesus – The Name Above All Names.

This is another awesome testimony to the glory of Jesus, the name above all names.

About one and half year back, A good friend of ours informed us about a family in our neighborhood who needed prayer. They were unbelievers, believing in other gods (I say gods because they believe in a huge number of gods and had at least about half a dozen idols in their house). Sylvia and myself agreed to go over to this family’s house and pray with them. The main issue here was that the man of the house was an extreme alcoholic, they were financially well of, however alcoholism became a snare in the life of this man. He couldn’t spend a day without it, in fact in a day he would need to have alcohol at very regular intervals, so much so that the place that he worked had a problem with his habit and had asked him to take a break and sort out his problem and then he could get back to work.

So he was on a break from work, apparently I learnt that he attempted praying to the gods he knew, he joined the AA but none of it helped him. When we reached his house, we learnt that he was about to set foot out of the house to have a drink at the bar, however his wife insisted that he wait and meet us and allow us to pray for him and then he could go. As we stepped into his home, he was seated on a couch and we took our seats. I began the conversation telling him that we heard of his difficult situation and came there to pray for him. At that instant he got off the couch and was on his knees next to my feet, I was rather embarrassed to be in such an awkward position. But he literally joined his hands and began begging us“Please help me if you can. I am obsessed with alcohol. I cannot stop thinking about it for even a minute. The desire for it is constantly in me and it never goes away. I tried many things but it won’t go away. I’m trapped in this obsession and don’t know what to do”. He had tears in his eyes. I felt the pain that he went through and the misery of his family members, his wife and two children.

They were devastated because it was nearly about 10 years since he got into this addiction. It was ruining the environment at his home, his marriage and his relationship with his children. It started affecting his job too. I said to him, “I am no one by myself. But I believe in a God of the impossible. He can do anything and this problem of yours is a piece of cake for Him. I will pray for you, but before that I want you to know about this God”, Then I began to give him a very brief message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he was not in a state of mind that he could pay attention for a long while. Realizing this, I asked him,“Do you believe in Jesus?” He promptly said “I had heard of Jesus through some of my friends when I was young. Yes I do believe”. But then realizing that he had a concept that there are many gods in this universe and he could just accept Jesus as one more god in his life and maybe have one more idol on his shelf. So I said to him,“It is one thing to believe in Jesus, but I ask you, do you believe in Jesus who is the Lord of Lords, the one and only Savior of the world, the one God who came to die for your sins?”. He thought for a while and then it seemed as if he made an important decision, he said “Yes I do believe that Jesus is above all gods that I worship and that He alone is God”. I was amazed that it didn’t take him too much time or discussion to accept this fact. I think that he probably was at the lowest point in his life and had nothing to lose which is why he could make such a decision”. The Holy Spirit then told me to show him [Matthew 11:28-30] which I made him read“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I gave him a quick message that Jesus wants to give him rest from all his burdens and told him that if he was willing then we would like to pray for him right then. He agreed and said that he would like to be prayed for, so I asked him to be seated on a chair while the three of us got up and came near to his chair. We began praying in tongues much to the amazement of the wife and children who had never seen such a thing before. We continued praying, laying hands on him and rebuked the spirit of addiction and alcoholism to depart from the man in Jesus’ name. We finished praying in about a couple of minutes. The man then stood up and said to us in the most astonished voice“I don’t know what you have done to me, but I know now that I have been set free, my mind has been freed.”He turned to his wife and said“You may want to believe it or not, but I can say that something has happened and I’m not the same anymore.” For a moment I was a little too stunned to react or say anything. I then gathered myself and told him to praise God for a mighty miracle that He has worked in him. I saw tears of joy in his eyes, his wife was a little too confused whether to accept it as reality or it was just an emotional outburst. But she decided to go with her husband and believe that a change took place in him.

We all began rejoicing and everyone was excited including the children. Just then I felt the Holy Spirit lead him into the sinners prayer so that He could accept Jesus as his Savior which he gladly did. He mentioned to me that he would immediately get back to his job in a few days time (which meant he would be travelling to another city). So I spoke to him about the importance of being in fellowship and finding a church in the city he would be staying. We chatted a short while and then praising God we left from there.

Later that evening we got to know that a few hours after we left, this man went out and purchased some alcohol and brought it home to have it. But as he started having it, as the alcohol touched his mouth, he spat it out and said that he could no longer have it. He detested the taste of it. Wow! What a mighty miracle by the Lord. He wife was most pleased when this happened and she couldn’t stop thanking us. She said to us”Thank you so much for what you have done”. We told her“We didn’t do anything but pray, it was the work of our Lord Jesus, give thanks to Him”. She even offered us some money and tried insisting that we take it, to which we told her that God has blessed us sufficiently we didn’t need the money.

I can never forget this incident, it is such a refreshing testimony that all I can say when I reflect upon it is“Thank You Jesus. Your name is truly above all names. You are wonderful. I love You”.